In maintenance since June 1, 2012

I am now jogging 3.5 minutes without stopping! I could never jog that much! Last week I thought I would not make it because the effort I had to make was huge, but here I am, jogging in the park, watching the birds in the morning, feeling an enormous sense of achievement.
I have lived some hundred meters away from a beautiful park for 20 years and I rarely visited it. Now I am going there every other day, and I am slowly learning my way among the winding paths, the ponds and the bridges. Jogging gives me a lot of peace, and is helping me keep slightly below my maintenance weight. Now that my muscles are harder and there is less fat to complain about, I got into the habit of taking care of my skin more systematically, so I think that soon I will even dare to wear a swimsuit! I have not bought one in around 15 years…
Why do we wait so much to make these changes in our lives? When I started this blog I thought of giving it the title “Is this time different?” because I doubted it would be different this time. Now I know it is, and a lot different: I could never stick to a food plan for six months before, I could never undertake an exercise program seriously, and I kept bingeing and then trying to fast –I never could fast, by the way–, so I could say I waited for around 35 years to build the habits I believe in. Why this long, I wonder? My youth is over and I did not enjoy it! I guess I had to learn many many things before I could build the habits I believed in.
I still need to learn a lot: to plan meals, to choose better, but also to be more politically aware, to manage my time better, to read more. Maybe the key to success is that! Not to think only in terms of food and exercise, but in terms of learning, of growing!